"Most people who saw Otis perform during his heyday in the 1950s thought he wasa light-skinned black man. He used "we" when talking about black people, marriedhis black high school sweetheart and stayed in substandard "for colored only"hotels with his black bandmates when they toured the South.Johnny Otis, though, wasn't his real name. He was born Ioannis AlexandresVeliotes to Greek immigrants in Northern California. He grew up in a blackneighborhood where he developed such a kinship with black culture that he walkedaway from his whiteness and became black by choice."...Otis: "I do not expect everybody to understand it, but it is a fact. I am blackenvironmentally, psychologically, culturally, emotionally, and intellectually."

"Otis wouldn't be such a mystery today. He was a pioneer in what people now call'racial fluidity.' It's the belief that race, like gender, is a choice, not abiological identity you're assigned at birth. Racially fluid people reject thebox they're put in and craft their own identity."

Post by RWChttps://www.cnn.com/2018/03/02/us/racial-fluidity/index.html"Most people who saw Otis perform during his heyday in the 1950s thought he wasa light-skinned black man. He used "we" when talking about black people, marriedhis black high school sweetheart and stayed in substandard "for colored only"hotels with his black bandmates when they toured the South.Johnny Otis, though, wasn't his real name. He was born Ioannis AlexandresVeliotes to Greek immigrants in Northern California. He grew up in a blackneighborhood where he developed such a kinship with black culture that he walkedaway from his whiteness and became black by choice."...Otis: "I do not expect everybody to understand it, but it is a fact. I am blackenvironmentally, psychologically, culturally, emotionally, and intellectually.""Otis wouldn't be such a mystery today. He was a pioneer in what people now call'racial fluidity.' It's the belief that race, like gender, is a choice, not abiological identity you're assigned at birth. Racially fluid people reject thebox they're put in and craft their own identity."

I performed on two shows with him and his orch. (both included Shuggieand one with Bobby Day in his show). The frrst was Billy Bob's Texasin Fort Worth and the second was the Belgian Rhythm and Blues Festivalin Lomel, 1989. I got to spend some time with him on the bus back toour hotel. He was a great guy to hang with.

Post by RWChttps://www.cnn.com/2018/03/02/us/racial-fluidity/index.html"Most people who saw Otis perform during his heyday in the 1950s thought he wasa light-skinned black man. He used "we" when talking about black people, marriedhis black high school sweetheart and stayed in substandard "for colored only"hotels with his black bandmates when they toured the South.Johnny Otis, though, wasn't his real name. He was born Ioannis AlexandresVeliotes to Greek immigrants in Northern California. He grew up in a blackneighborhood where he developed such a kinship with black culture that he walkedaway from his whiteness and became black by choice."...Otis: "I do not expect everybody to understand it, but it is a fact. I am blackenvironmentally, psychologically, culturally, emotionally, and intellectually.""Otis wouldn't be such a mystery today. He was a pioneer in what people now call'racial fluidity.' It's the belief that race, like gender, is a choice, not abiological identity you're assigned at birth. Racially fluid people reject thebox they're put in and craft their own identity."

-----------About 10 years before Otis, the jazz musician Mezz Mezzrow (ne MiltonMesirow) expressed similar sentiments. In fact, he claimed that once hewas arrested and put in a segregated jail and demanded to be housed withthe black prisoners.You can't apply today's standards to things that happened in a differentera. I seem to say that a lot. It's one way of making sense of theworld, for me.